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Sprouting Seeds

12/04/2016, 10:30pm MST
By Jessi Pierce

USA Hockey is in good hands with the next generation of players

Auston Matthews. Jack Eichel. Dylan Larkin. At 18, 19 and 20 years old, they’ve (already) become household names. Five, 6-, and 7-year-olds run to the nearest arena in National Hockey League jerseys bearing their names, and hockey fans around the world are in awe of their on-ice abilities. 

These players are just a few of the many current NHL stars that represent the future of USA Hockey. They are a part of the next wave of hockey success in America. They are the seeds from which USA Hockey will continue to grow.  

“I think that [USA Hockey’s] been in good hands from the top down,” said John Vanbiesbrouck, a Vezina Trophy winner and member of the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. “I look at where we’re at now and it’s even more encouraging. It’s encouraging to think where we’ll be in the next five, 10 or 15 years.”

More players

There were 542,583 total hockey players in the U.S. last season; 107,703 at the 8U level—a new record. In 1990-91, there were 195,125 players in the game. In 2000-2001, there were 439,140. To say there has been tremendous growth in the amount of kids coming out to play hockey would be an understatement. 

“I think the reality is that we’ve got some really good athletes that decided to play hockey,” said Jim Johannson, assistant executive director of hockey operations at USA Hockey. “We’re getting players younger and younger, and they are players that are very good.”

Players are coming out thanks to the emphasis USA Hockey has placed on growth and retention. Initiatives like Try Hockey For Free and the 2 and 2 Challenge have influenced more and more families to take their kids on the ice. 

“There’s nothing like the joy of your first time on the ice and we want to promote that in an environment for families to find out first if that boy or girl will actually enjoy the game before going out and committing to full equipment and ice times,” said Johannson. “It’s just exposure to the game. It’s a grassroots movement.”

More hockey markets

Rosters on early NHL and U.S. National Teams were littered with the same states of origin. Now places like California, Arizona, Florida and Texas are nearly as common. 

“There are just more players that are great players and they are coming from all areas of the United States,” said Vanbiesbrouck, a Detroit, Michigan, native. “That’s one of the biggest changes is that players are coming from all over. It’s also one of the most promising aspects of USA Hockey.

“We have to maintain what we have in Illinois and Michigan and Minnesota and Massachusetts; those staple states. We have to maintain those areas and support them as well as we can while also supporting markets that are new and expanding.”

Vanbiesbrouck looks to the NHL as one of the biggest catalysts of growing the game in new regions of the U.S. Not just in terms of expansion teams, but also in adding more American players to NHL teams.

“Now the NHL is growing with a team in Las Vegas,” he continued. “We’d love to see (more) players come from Nevada next. The more the NHL helps us grow the game, the more it will.”

More development

Johannson points to USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program for jumpstarting higher expectations at the grassroots level. The NTDP is designed to prepare players for international competition while associations across the nation work toward improving players at every level. Together they work to create the best hockey player they can, and prepare players for hockey at an elite level. 

“The bar has been raised across the board,” Johannson said. “The byproduct of the NTDP is that the associations and feeder systems are also doing so much more to churn out better and better hockey players now. 

“The next generation we hope comes from the concept of the American Development Model, with more and more kids staying in the game…Whether a player’s an early developer or a later developer, we want the chance to develop more and more players in a structured program that keeps them in the game and provides them an environment to excel at whatever age that may be.”

At the core of the grassroots program is the ADM. In it, USA Hockey focuses on age-appropriate, age-specific development based on a child’s physical and mental growth per each age group. Its concepts center on fun and engagement while preparing players to transition to each level of the game. Its vision is for the long-term athletic development of each player, not just for the season.  

“The ADM has fortified those principles of the past and brought them to the future,” said Vanbiesbrouck. “That’s vision—it’s long-term vision, and it’s going to create more players and more depth.”

More success

As of late November, there were 197 active American players in the NHL. As that number grows, so does the success of USA Hockey.

“It’s such a promising future for USA Hockey and kids playing hockey in America,” said Vanbiesbrouck. “It’s been getting bigger and better each year.”
 

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